Construction of Reunion homes at 104th and Reunion Pkwy on Dec. 28, 2017 built by Oakwood homes. Single-family home construction should represent a larger share of housing permits in 2018 as builders continue to play catch up with an undersupplied market.

Turns out the flip side of the coin of the 2008 housing crisis isn’t much fun either — call it the 2018 housing crunch.

Instead of being trapped by upside-down mortgages, homeowners are trapped by the reality that while their home may sell in days for well over asking price, buying elsewhere in the Denver metro area is painfully expensive and will likely come with a higher interest rate.

Instead of neighborhoods sitting half-finished or filled with foreclosures and short sales, homes both new and old and of all types and sizes are hitting the market with price tags so high as to be well out of reach of most Denver workers.

Svaldi covered a report conducted by Shift Research Lab titled “Factors Impacting Housing Affordability.” The study found factors that include “shortages of available land for residential development and workers in certain trades, a backlash against growth, low productivity in the construction business and evolving consumer preferences toward bigger homes with more amenities combined with builders’ preference for selling higher-end properties.”

Government employed all kinds of tricks — both wise and not so wise — to pull us out of the 2008 housing crisis. Lowering the interest rates encouraged reluctant buyers to jump into the market, and don’t forget President Barack Obama’s insane $8,000 tax credit per home giveaway to first-time homebuyers that cost the federal government more than $12 billion.

Which raises the dangerous question: What, if anything, should our government be doing to help now?

We believe homebuilders who said at the Colorado Association of Realtors’ Economic Summit on Wednesday that the ballot measure would have “devastating consequences in an already constrained market.”

Svaldi reported that the proposed initiative, which would be presented to voters in November if enough signatures are collected to put it on the ballot, would limit permits for homes and apartments to 1 percent of the existing housing stock in 2019 and 2020 in 10 Front Range counties.

But neither should our local governments open the floodgates to developers. If this crunch were to support a housing boom — developers looking to capitalize on historic high prices to make extraordinary profits — the last thing we want is that boom to result in uncontrolled urban sprawl.

No one wants to see low-density subdivisions gobble up acres of land, strain already limited water supplies, worsen congestion on our roads and strain school districts unprepared for such growth. Local elected officials will be on the front lines of this housing crunch for some time, having to weigh the dire need for additional housing units with the long-term desire to have a community that grows in a responsible way.

The last thing those elected officials need are arbitrary caps. Instead, they should stick to the reasonable restrictions placed on growth and development in their cities and counties already in place.

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